Episode 005: Radiant Position
I’ll always remember blushing to my roots, and the nausea creeping up my throat when I was the last one to be chosen. It didn’t matter the game: baseball, kickball, dodgeball, or volleyball, if skill and body awareness were required everyone knew I would be a crutch to the team. I was known for a variety of injuries resulting from a rapidly moving object being thrown or hit in my direction. Most of my friends couldn’t wait for P.E., while I spent my time imagining ways to escape the mandatory fun.
I preferred staying safe in the library, living out my adventures in my imagination. I could locate your book in the card catalog and check you in or out using a stamp with expert precision. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s just one more thing our digital world has robbed us of.
Do you know the shame I’m talking about? I can still feel the vice around my middle, squeezing the air from my lungs. As a child, even though I didn’t want to play, I also desperately wanted to be chosen, for someone to want me on the team. Standing alone, I would laugh and cross my arms, declaring I didn’t even want to play the dumb game.
In moments of being looked over many of us hide our shame by pretending we don’t care.
But oh, we do. Rejection hurts no matter our age and no matter the situation.
Research suggests rejection causes the same type of pain as physical injuries. “As far as your brain is concerned, a broken heart is not so different from a broken arm,” states Naomi Eisenberger, PhD, at the University of California. [1]
In some form or another, we all carry the weight of rejection, of not being chosen. From neglectful parents to peers at school, not making the team or not being the one asked to the dance, someone else getting the job or the promotion, or even not being the one your new puppy wants to spend time with, we all can understand rejection.
How we process rejection affects our ability to walk in our God-given purpose. When we carry rejection over into our relationship with God, we will often believe His plans and blessings belong to others.
Friend, when it comes to God, you don’t need to fear rejection because He chose YOU.
In John 15:16, Jesus said, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you.”
With your flaws, with your past, and with all your imperfections, He chose you.
My daughter became enamored of chess pieces as a child. Over her twelve years, she has developed skills as a player with strategy I can’t beat. In several moves, she can position her pieces to knock over my king and pronounce checkmate.
I believe in our spiritual walk we make the mistake of believing God is sitting at a giant chess board and we are his pawns. Pawns have very limited ability. The enemy likes to make us feel like we don’t have any power over circumstances in our lives. He likes to make us feel as if the shame we experience from our past is enough for God to reject us.
When we surrender to Him, the Bible is very clear, God chooses the very thing overshadowing our life with shame, to demonstrate His glory to those around us.
1 Peter 2:9 reminds us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”.
Being chosen changes our position on the board of life.
Being chosen by God, the King of Kings, means protection. The King is sovereign, He holds chief authority. Does this mean since I am chosen, I will be protected from harm and pain? Have you ever wondered this same thing? Or wondered why when you say a prayer, God doesn’t answer immediately?
During a hiking trip with friends, the kind where you don’t talk because all your air is needed for walking, I was reminded some things don’t happen right now, or even overnight, or even in a week. Difficult situations need time. Time to settle. Time to heal. Time for pressure to release. The temptation to expect immediate relief often leads to hasty decisions. Sometimes I know I only need to take one step forward, but it feels like a pawn move. I end up having this internal conversation with the Lord, if it’s okay God, I’d rather take five steps forward and get to the end more quickly. Sometimes I can hear his voice telling me His job is protecting me from myself. He is sovereign. He is God above it all. He will make a way if I give Him the space to work and understand He knows the board better than I do. He can protect you in ways you don’t understand by not answering a prayer, by moving things around in your life in ways you don’t expect, or by helping you learn to trust Him in difficult situations.
His protection means He will be there. We have been given a shield of faith for protection (Ephesians 6:16). When the storms come, when the relationships fall apart, when the answer isn’t what we want to hear…His promises tell us,
“For I have chosen you, and will not throw you away, Don’t be afraid for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:9-11NLT).
Second, being chosen means provision.
When our first son was born, my heart did jumping jacks as they laid him in my arms. I’m certain I continued my Lamaze breathing techniques as I looked around for his manual. I wanted so desperately to get everything right, to be the best mom in the world. His first few doctor’s appointments ended in tears. He wasn’t gaining enough weight and they kept insisting I wasn’t nursing him enough. I tried to explain how much he was spitting up but was told all babies spit up. In all fairness, I was a first-time mom, and I can’t even imagine the “crazy” pediatricians hear from us. However, bells continued to go off in my head. I knew something wasn’t right. I gave up on nursing and switched to formula after formula and he continued to struggle gaining weight. Several months later during a doctor’s visit, he had one of his supposedly “normal” spitting-up episodes. The doctor asked, “Is it always like this?” After a few tests, sure enough, he had a nerve issue requiring medication. My point is this, without even knowing it God and nature equipped me with a mother’s intuition. I had been given a manual of sorts, I just needed to listen to it.
Jesus chose you for a purpose.
He knew what position He wanted you to play on the team and has every intention of making sure you possess the skills needed to complete the job.
In John 15:16, the verse I mentioned earlier, Jesus continues, “I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name.”
Stop stressing about the details. When God calls you, take the one step you can take. He will not only show you the way forward but provide you with what you need along the way. He will bring you to the right places, the right people, the right position at the right time.
Finally, being chosen means perspective.
I’ve often heard people ask if God is good why would He allow bad things to happen? I confess when we found out my mom had breast cancer, I asked Him that question. Often, we equate goodness to our perspective of current reality. Yet, as a parent to be “good” I must teach responsibility in ways that may not feel “good” to my kids. But I know better, I know what’s best, and I have the perspective of years they do not. My mom’s diagnosis put everything into perspective in my life. Other situations I was having trouble navigating faded into the background. In His goodness, through a difficult situation, He reminded me where to spend my energy (Romans 8:28).
Living radiantly means recognizing I am chosen by the King.
I can’t talk about being chosen without bringing up one of my favorite Bible heroes, Esther. When we read about this beautiful woman, chosen to be a queen, it is easy to gloss over the details and be inspired by how God used her life.
If you were Esther, living out her story would have been more than inspirational words to live by. After surviving the selection process to become queen, she was faced with people and circumstances threatening her position and her life. In approaching the King, her husband, without being summoned, I can imagine her questioning with each step if he would choose to spare her life. Talk about relationship complications.
If you read her account, you see how she is strategically positioned to defend and save her people, the Jews. We have the perspective of knowing how it all turns out. Because we know the story our perspective changes. We don’t fear for her life because we know how it all ends.
Being chosen means you have the perspective of promise. You can be led by Him even in the worst of situations.
We have the full backing of our King to move in whichever direction He sends us to proclaim His light.
We know how the story ends. We know Christ claimed victory over every sin in our life at the cross. We know one day He’s coming back and there won’t be any more “death, or sorrow, or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4 NLT).
There isn’t a situation He is going to look at and decide to pick someone else. He chose you, as with Esther, “for just such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).
Let’s pray for His strength to remind us of who we are in Him.
Father, thank you for loving us, and for choosing us. God, sometimes it’s hard to feel chosen. Sometimes it feels like I am alone, like I am trying to figure all of this out by myself. Help me remember, you chose me. You saved me, and you have a purpose for my life. Help me to live in a way others see you. Let me remember you will provide everything I need; you will be with me wherever I go, my sins have been fully redeemed and I am protected from anything the enemy sends my way. God, I know you have a perspective of my life I can’t see. I place it all in your hands. I love you, Lord. Lead me. Guide me. Direct me.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let’s go live radiantly.
XOXO,
Laura
[1] Kristen Weir, “The pain of social rejection”, Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, April 2012, apa.org
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John 15
1 Peter 2
Ephesians 6
Isaiah 41
Romans 8
Revelation 21
Esther
All scripture NIV unless otherwise noted
